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Choice Hotels removes UWS hotel’s franchise after spate of crime
There have been several violent incidents at the Rodeway Inn at 31 West 71st Street
After neighbors pointed to Rodeway Inn hotel as the center of crime hitting their Upper West Side neighborhood, Maryland-based hospitality holding company Choice Hotels severed its relationship with the inn.
Last month, Onboard Informatics, a real estate research provider, found that there have been four felony assaults, three robberies, 13 burglaries, 23 grand larcenies and a homicide between Central Park and Columbus Avenue near the 92-key Rodeway Inn hotel at 31 West 71st Street since 2006, according to Onboard Informatics.
In March, a trio of masked men entered the 12-story Rodeway Inn, pistol whipped three workers and emptied the safe, taking thousands of dollars, according to the New York Post, which commissioned the Onboard Informatics report.
“Our hotels are independently owned and operated franchises. We are immediately removing this franchise,” said Sarah Lee, the firm’s director of public relations, told DNAinfo. “They will no longer be associated with Choice Hotels, in any way.”
The West 71st Street Block Association and neighbors have been calling for the hotel to be shut down, DNAinfo reported.
“We are appalled this has been going on; residents have a right to a safe neighborhood,” Katina Ellison, of the West 71st Street Block Association, wrote in an email to DNAinfo.
Rodeway Inn Manager Michael Gray told the website he hadn’t yet heard the news that the franchise would be dropped by Choice Hotels and couldn’t comment.
Choice Hotels owns a myriad of chains, including Rodeway Inn, Comfort Inn and Sleep Inn, according to its website. [DNAinfo] — Dusica Sue Malesevic